Mechanism for controlling the speed of turbines or other prime movers connected in parallel.



H. E. WARREN. MECHANISM FOR CONTROLLING THE SPEED OETURBINES OR OTHER PRIME MOVERS CONNECTED IN PARALLEL.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 26, 1911.

1,095,178. Patented Apr. 28, 191% WITNESSES: INVENTOR.

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-* UNITED STATES PATENT orrron.

HENRY E. WARREN, F ASHLAND, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE LOMBARD GOVERNOR' COMPANY,

JERSEY.

0F ASHLAND, MASSACHUSETTS, A. CORPORATION OF NEW MECHAI'NISM iron CONTROLLING THE srnnn or 'ronnmns on OTHER PRIME Movnns oounac'rnn In PARALLEL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 28, 1914.

I Applicationflled September 25, 1911. Serial No. 651,110.,

Be it known that L-HENRY E. \VARREN, a citizen of the United States of America, and resident of As land, in the county of Middlesex and C mmonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented Improvements in Mechanism for Controlling the Speed of Turbines or other Prime Movers Connected in Parallel, of which the following is a'specification.

This invention relates to mechanisra for controlling thespeed of a plurality of turbines or other prime-movers when connected in parallel, and it comprises the following iniportant elements:First, a wattmeter or electrical current-actuated device controlled by the totaloutputof electrical generators which" are driven by the turbines; second, means for magnifying the motion of the'wattmeter and transmitting the same with multiplied force to controllers of the separate governors of the turbines;-

third, governors with the necessary connections to operate the gates or valves of the turbines.

Referring'to the drawings, A represents the wattmeter or electric currentractuated device, which is intended to be connected with the outgoing feeders from the Switch board in such a manner that the deflections of the moving coil willbe proportional to the total output of the generators Bis an automatic pressure controller, tak- I ing fluid at high pressure from'supply pipe 'sure through pipe I), which leads ernors of the several turbines.

a and delfvering the same at reduced presto the gov- The function of B is to maintain a pressure in the pipe system. b varying with and correspond: mg to the deflections of the moving e011 -0 .of the wattmeter A, but with multiplied force. j G, G,-are familiar forms of governors for controlling the speed of turbines These governors are res ectivelyactuated by means ves (Z, (Z, and these valves ctively under the mutual control of f. It will be apparent that the positions'of the pistons f, f, will depend pressure in the pipe I), andthis in turn, will vary with the position of the mov- 0 of the watt-meter A which controls the valve B. Consequently, through the systems of levers 'g, it, changes in load Z at the switchboard S, will produce correspondmg changes in the respective regulatmg valves cl, d, of the governors G, G, and this will result in immediate adjustment of the gates z', 2', of the turbines T, T. Therefore, the output of the turbines throu h their generators connected at 70,70, will e made to correspond almost instantly with the station output, without waiting for changes in speed which would affect the centrifugal elements 6, e, of the governors. The latter are not essential for. purposes of regulation by this method, but areprovided as safeguards against any injury to the pipe lme J) or the fluid supply pipe a, which would cause the failure of proper action of the governors G, G, if not supplemented by the centrifugal elements 2, 6.

It will be noticed that by connecting in parallel the several generators, driven by the prime-movers T, with the wattmeter A through the wires 10, as in this system of control, the load may be divided proportionately among any number of prime- -I am aware that means have been suggestmeans of a wattmeter connected to the governor of a single prime-mover and although there has also been a suggestion for operating several such governors in parallel by a fslngle wattmeter, sorfar as I am able to understand the suggestion the arrangement proposed would be whollv unsuccessful and impracticable. Further, if it were attempted to accomplish this by means of separate wattmeters at each governor, the method would'be' unsatisfactory and practically inoperative, for two reasons: first, on account of the added cost and complication of the wattmeters, which are necessarily expensive and delicate; and second, because. it would be almost impossible and wholly impracticable to connect the wattmeters either to the generator circuits or to the outgoing lines in such a manner as to cause themto divide the load properly among the different units.

For example, if each of these wattmeters was connected to the circuit of the generator which it was controlling, it would be r'espon sive not only to changes'in the total load of the station, but also to all interchanges of energy among the generators in the station.

That is to say, if the total load should remain constant, and one generator increased its output slightly by feeding into another generator, the tendency of the separate controlling ,wattmeters would be to still further increase the output of the machine which was already carrying more than its proportion oft-he load'and decrease the output of any other machine carrying less than its proportion of the load, and there would evidently, be a strong tendency toward. dividing the load unequally among the different generators. If on the other hand, all the governors were provided with separate wattmeter controllers, and these controllers were connected to the outgoing lines of the station, it would be necessary to continually readjust all the wattmeters' as units were brought into or removed from service. For example, if the load were being carried by a single unit, the wattmeter of that unit would require to be so adjusted asto cause a large gate movement for a given change in the total load; while if there were two units running, the wattmeters'of both units would require to be readjusted so that each one would cause only one half as great gate movement for the same change 111 load'as before. Likewise, if the number of units were still further increased it would be necessary to reduce the sensitiveness of each separate wattmeter for the addition of every new unit.

this wattmeter and the several governors, is "of such a nature as to produce like effects upon all the machines, so'that they will unden alliconditions divide the total load being carried, proportionately among the difi'erent units Mechanism for governing a plurality of primemovers for independent generators, consisting of a series of governors mutually responsive tovariations of pressure in a fluid system and independently responsive to speed variations of the units whichthey respectively control, and means to vary the pressure in the fluid system according to the combined output of the units governed.

' HENRY E. WARREN. ,Witnesses:

' y. REUBEN L. RoBER'rs,

FLORENCE A. COLLINS. 

